Judge's husband up next in sex case

Related Items

Columns

AFTER four days of often lurid testimony from Alex Chapman, the inquiry into Queen's Bench Justice Lori Douglas's conduct is expected to hear today from her husband, Jack King -- whom she has blamed for the mess that threatens her career.

King, a lawyer who has already pleaded guilty to professional misconduct for his role in the scandal, is scheduled to give his side of the story that began with his attempts to engage Chapman to have sex with Douglas while King handled his divorce case in 2003.

The Canadian Judicial Council hearing on Thursday set some boundaries on the often salacious testimony by deciding Chapman's past sex life would not be part of the hearing.

A legal bombshell was dropped Wednesday that suggested Chapman had been paid $500 weekly to have sex with his neighbour's wife in 2003. Chapman argued the payment was for computer training.

King will be a key witness in the inquiry as Chapman has already testified King began asking him questions about his personal life and invited him to coffee and lunch near the end of his divorce trial. But Chapman said King only wanted to talk about Douglas, telling him to visit a porn website and look under the heading of "white princesses." It was there Chapman first saw explicit bondage photos of Douglas.

Before the hearing, Douglas broke her silence in a court filing in which she said the incident with Chapman in 2003 -- before she was called to the bench -- was the result of "unimaginable betrayal" by King "in pursuit of mad and undisclosed fantasy."

The hearing, initially expected to last two weeks, will be hard-pressed to hear from the remaining witnesses without requiring additional days.

Douglas, who has not sat as a Queen's Bench judge since the story broke in 2010, is expected to be the final witness in the case, which turns on whether she sexually harassed Chapman.